The Girl Child

Women in India are looked as housewives, who have to please her family especially her husband, therefore education is rarely an option for girls in India. Neeraj who is fifteen years old lives in India with her father, mother, sister and other relatives. She does many chores, as well as grazing goats, and farming. Just like in Afghanistan, the boys never do house work, so while she helps her mother with the house work her brothers play outside. Neeraj dreams of becoming a teacher, and building a school for her students. Since she has to help with the house work, she attends school at night, by the time she gets back her family members have already gone to bed. To make things worse for Neeraj, a drought occurred in the year of 2006; her parents took her out of school, so that she could find green pasture. While she was gone she did not study, making her fall behind in school. When she returned four months later, she worked hard to get caught up again but it was hard. Since, many parents began enrolling their kids in public schools during the day, the night school was closed down. Neeraj’s teacher did his best to help her get into the public school, but because Neeraj had forgotten so much information, she was placed in second grade. All the younger kids made fun of her since she was so big, and did not know anything. Neeraj ended up dropping out of school; her teacher says that “is up to her family to decide what it will be like for Neeraj.” Neeraj’s parents plan to marry her to a young educated man. With this in mind, Neeraj is not planning on returning to school, instead she is waiting to be married, and to form a family of her own. Therefore, if Neeraj does not marry an educated wealthy man, she will not live a prosperous life. Moving on, there is one last kid, whose name is Ken, who as well has great dreams of completing

The first selected reading relies on second-person narration to show how girls are affected over time by societal expectations that internalize feelings of inferiority. By describing the action of the girl in second-person, the reader experiences the decline of confidence and individuality in a girl’s personality. The contrast of past and present self, told through anecdotes, emphasizes the progression of shame and degradation of self that a girl faces in society, particularly in school. The author shows that society’s treatment of girls affects their self-worth. After being called too “vicious” for having a competitive spirit, the story relays the experience of muting one’s personality to fit the desired role of girls (Findlen 3). Another incident by the

In the essay “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid there are references to many social problems that were prevalent earlier in society that still apply to today’s society. In this essay the author is giving advice to her teenage daughter where she teachers her the “proper” etiquette and what was expected of a woman in her view. In this story the author Kincaid seems to be the mother and the teenage daughter is probably her daughter, in a different way of viewing she may be the daughter herself reflecting on the past, but it’s not very relevant to the meaning of the literature. In this essay I will explain how the way women are viewed in today’s society have changed, as well as what remains of the past that has yet to be overcome. I will also try and analyze and give my theory as to why Kincaid decided to write her story the way she did.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

For a reader in 2017 “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid might seems very surreal and harsh as a story; mostly because of the very grating and mean language that is used when the mother is talking. The mother’s heartless language makes is really uncomfortable even though at the end of the day, she speaks nothing but love into her daughter’s life. She is giving her daughter social and family teachings, sharing with her the cultural and social values that will help her girl to have a peaceful and respected household and a happy life.

Society has developed the gender role of women to be caretakers of their children and the household. In her poem “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid writes a short narrative of a mother giving her daughter advice about how to behave and her responsibilities as a woman. The mother tells her daughter how to do several of the traditional housewife’s duties, such as washing clothes, preparing meals, and cleaning the house. She also instructs her on how to behave when men are present. According to her, the daughter must smile to men she likes, dislikes, despises, and is unfamiliar with. The mother informs her daughter about abusive and

These children’s go outside and end up in a bad influence. One of the impact of this on girls is sexual assaulted and teenage age pregnancy. In this society, there’s a high number of teenage pregnancies. These teenagers have sexual intercourse, but they don’t recognize the consequences of it. It is said parents are so busy with their lives that they don’t have time for their kids. Some parents are alcoholic, which is why they can’t take care of their kids. As a result, children’s go outside to find the love which they didn’t have from home. For every teenager the love of a parent is important. If he or she finds love from home, if they are taught what can happen to girls outside, they would be more protective for themselves. I believe that parent’s should do proper care of children’s and girls should be more protective of themselves to prevent them from pregnancy. Firstly, a child being pregnant doesn’t look good. When one is a child herself, she’s the mother of another child. How’s the girl supposed to take care of the child when she’s growing up, plus knows nothing about it. A teenage mother does not like anyone to make fun of her or to talk behind her back. Pregnancy suits a married woman because a person has been matured at this time and a child knows who’s her father and mother. In addition, child pregnancy takes away childhood dreams. A person can’t study well when she has to take care of a little

As adults, we often think we know what’s best for children and youth. In certain circumstances, this holds true but not all the time. In the case of gender, parents more often than not have strong opinions, especially when it comes to the safety of girls. By looking at gender through the socio-cultural lens, it permits us to view young people in a contextual way that creates moral panics and discourses.

All of those disadvantages for women in modern society are affecting young girls, and it is hard to raise daughters in today’s culture. We as a country should not just let this inequality continue. Men and women should be treated equally and it is important for parents to raise their kids to make the future less

From the start the girlchild was given gifts that stained in her mind as what she was suppose to become in life. With the little dolls, GE stoves and irons, and lipstick her parents put this ideal image of the perfect woman in her head. With these types of presents the girlchild is already learning her role in society.

puberty bring with it a complex tradition of restrictions and behavioral guidelines. Kincaid’s poem reveals the rigidity and complexity of the social confines the girl is expected to operate underl. A girl is an induction into the women community as well as an orientation into the act of womanhood (Walkerdine et. al.). The lectured instructions given to the silent girl child vary from the housekeeping, “this is how you sweep a whole house”, to dealing with intimate relationships, “this is how a man bullies you; …how to bully a man” to medicine, “this is how to make good medicine (to abort)” (Kincaid).The inane patriarchal society expects gender stereotypes to prevail. The mother is tasked to give her daughter instructions on how to be a good woman in the stereotyped society. The advice the mother gives to the daughter cements the gender stereotype and portrays limitations on a woman (Bailey and Carol 107).

Girls, young women, and mature mothers. Society has consistently given women strict guidelines, rules and principles on how to be an appropriate member of a man’s society. These rules are set at a young age and enforced thoroughly into adulthood. When not followed accordingly, women often times too many face reprimanding through means of verbal abuse, physical abuse, or social exile. In the midst of all these strict guidelines and social etiquette for girls, a social rebellion started among girls and women and gender roles were broken, however the social rebellion did not and does not affect all girls and women. For instance, in less socially developed places, young girls on the brink of womanhood are still strongly persuaded to be a man’s idea of a “woman”.

Theses: women's voices and opinions being suppressed, men being able to hold females as property, the double standard of males and females.

If I had been a boy, my birth in a bountiful year would have marked me as lucky, a child with a special destiny to fulfil. But daughters were curses. A daughter had to be married off before she could even enter heaven, and dowries beggared families for generations. Gods with infinite memories visited the girl children on women who needed to be punished for sins committed in other incarnations. My mother’s past must have been heavy with wrongs. (Jasmine